Damascus Integral Bird and Trout WIP

[Mike Turner]

Hi all, I was contacted sometime back by a fellow forum member ( Jim Johnson ) to build him a custom knife. We talked quite a bit he was intially wanting maybe a hunter and asked to see some pics, I directed him to one I just completed to show the damascus pattern to see if he liked something like this,

Here is the knife I showed Jim,

Well Jim really liked this knife so with some more talking we decided to build a similar knife.

So let the build begin.

 

[Mike Turner]

OK build time, first up I forged out the "W" Pattern billet for another knife but had plenty for this knife. I had showed this billet earlier but here is the pic anyway,

Here we started with this really compressed "W" pattern,

Here we have a few forging pics,

Cooking the blade in one of Dave Lisch's forges ,

Here you will notice the rod is still attached from when I forged the block out,

 

[Mike Turner]

Checking to see how the forging is going against a sketch I did on my anvil,

Rod has been removed and I am working on the profile,

Here I wanted to take a peek at what we had so far I also used my CNC Mill to set the front and back of the bolsters so they are even,

 

[Mike Turner]

Now I start shaping the bolsters using files,

Here is where we are now. I have surface ground the tang located the pin holes and have shaped the front of the bolsters. Also had the wife include the beautiful stag I got from Alpha Knife Supply for this build,

Hopefully I will get this heat treated before I have to head of to California in a few days.

 

[MLazyB]

Mike, I really like the way this is going. 2thumbs How thick at the bolster area did you start out?

Bing
MLazyB Custom Knives
Blade Show tester table 24P-A

 

[Mike Turner]

Hey Bing Thanks ,

Well lets see if I can answer your question, well that block started out 1 1/4" wide X 1 5/8" long X 1 1/4" tall. I forged it down to around 5/8" thick. I then forged the handle out to the thickness I wanted and length and then I bumped the bolster down to around 1/2" then forged the blade. Hope that helps.

 

[MLazyB]

Hey Bing Thanks ,

Well lets see if I can answer your question, well that block started out 1 1/4" wide X 1 5/8" long X 1 1/4" tall. I forged it down to around 5/8" thick. I then forged the handle out to the thickness I wanted and length and then I bumped the bolster down to around 1/2" then forged the blade. Hope that helps.

Thanks Mike, That answers my question. By the way the knife a the front of this thread is so Sweeeeeet. 2thumbs
Looking foward to the next stage of WIP

Bing
MLazyB Custom Knives
Blade Show tester table24P-A

 

[Mike Turner]

Bing that was the knife I had at Blade West Last year.

 

[MLazyB]

Bing that was the knife I had at Blade West Last year.

I thought it looked kind of familiar. I cannot remember Blade West is still a huge blurr for me.

Bing
MlazyB Custom Knives
Blade Show tester table24P-A

 

[Mike Turner]

You may have not remembered as it was almost done and was nekked, I sent it to Paul Long right after Blade West.

 

[Mike Turner]

So today I went over to my friend Gene Martin's house and used his heat treat oven to heat treat this knife. I tried something new for me I used a anti scale compound from Brownells and was quite impressed with it. So lets see some pics,

Here the knife has been heated to 500ºF and already has the first coat of the anti scale compound.

Putting on the second coat,

My friend Gene heating the oil up, just ain't no fun with out a little fire for the camera,

Coming out of the furnace after a 10 minute soak at 1500ºF (steel is O1 and 8670M in case I forgot to mention it),

Into the oil we go,

 

[Mike Turner]

After this I am really liking this anti scale compound, wish I found this stuff a long time ago,

More to come this week.

 

[Mike Turner]

Well today I managed to get some work done on this.


I started off squaring up the end of the scales that will go against the bolster,

I have also been needing to make this jig which will allow me to clamp one scale and clamp the tang to the jig so when I drill my hole through the scales it will be true and square,

Using the new jig,

One hole done 3 to go,

 

[Mike Turner]

Got the holes drilled for the pins and traced the tang and used the bandsaw to cut off the excess,

 

[Mike Turner]

Well now it is grinder time, I will take off most of the excess that is left and get it very close and finish the scale shaping with files and sand paper,

Looking pretty good now what do you think?

Thanks for looking and stay tuned more to come.

 

[Burl Source]

Looking really good!

 

[maxcutter03]

I love WIP treads. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Mike Turner]

Thanks Mark and Marvin.

Well got some time to work on this today. I finished up on getting the scales shaped with files and sandpaper, so here are the action shots.

Next we will be cleaning up the bolsters and the blade beyond where the plunge cuts will be to 2000 grit all by hand.

 

[Ken Hurst]

Beautiful piece ! Look out Mr. Bruce bump, looks like compition ....

 

[Mike Turner]

Thank you Ken, I hope to make a piece worthy of having some of your art added to it someday.